One of my lifelong fascinations has been with our moon. Who hasn't been affected by it in some way? It is a massive part of our existence. I have spent a good half of my photography career taking photos of this mesmerizing object in the night sky. Every time there is a beautiful moon, I am out there trying to get a shot of it – sometimes when it's clear as can be, and other times with clouds around it, giving it mood and perspective as the light dances around the sky.
Sometimes the moon even forms its own rainbow effect in the clouds. Other times, when the moon is over water, it adds beautiful highlights or shimmer to an image for nice long exposures in the dark. Either way, it has been very difficult to get the details I was chasing. Now, I know there is only one way to shoot this beauty and get the right resolution to make a very large stand-alone print.
The only way I could get this image was to lock on to the moon with a star tracking tripod head, and shoot tens of thousands of frames through a high powered telescope and then stack and tile all the final images to make one photo. The 60 miles of turbulent atmosphere between the earth and the moon is the reason why it required so many frames.
This was a very technical photograph, and after 30-40 attempts over a one-year period – and a better-than-perfect night sky – we nailed it! A beautiful, 170 megapixel file of a half moon. When I stand in front of a six-foot print of this photograph, I feel like I can reach out and touch it.
Collaborative photograph. Learn more
45 Artist Proof / 950 Limited Edition
